Reducing Hill Country Fire Problems

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31362, 6 May 1967, Page 16

Reducing Hill Country Fire Problems

There was a greater consciousness in the rural community of the damage caused by fire, and Court cases, where' an aggrieved landoccupier had sued even a neighbour for damages, had helped to alert people, said the Chief Soil Conservation Officer (Mr R. D. Dick), at a meeting of the North Canterbury Catchment Board yesterday.

Mr Dick, in a report prepared for the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council, said that the fire hazard in hill and mountain country in the board’s district had been reduced since 1944, and control of fire was much better today. A smaller area was being burnt than at any period since the European settlement. Making recommendations to reduce still further hill-coun-try fire risks, Mr Dick said that all land occupiers should

have conservation farm plans in force as soon as possible. Emphasis should be given to the subsidies available for firebreak-access tracks, fencing, over-sowing and topdressing and to encourage known practices to be used to reduce fire hazards. A limited area of scrub land, particularly matagouri and manuka land, remained a fire hazard problem. Costly methods of dealing with manuka scrub were known, but less was known about converting matagouri land into grassland. Research should be done on this problem. More stock ponds should be built where water was not readily available for firefighting.

Mr Dick said that on some foothill country, and on Banks Peninsula, afforestation should be interspersed with arable and pastoral fanning.